Quantification of adefovir and pitavastatin in human plasma and urine by LC-MS/MS: A useful tool for drug-drug interaction studies

As a tool to be used in transporter-mediated drug-drug interaction studies, a sensitive LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantification of adefovir and pitavastatin in human plasma and adefovir in urine was developed and successfully validated. Plasma samples were processed by protein precipitation using methanol with a subsequent concentrating step. Urine samples were diluted using 0.1% formic acid. Separation was achieved on a Synergy Polar-RP reversed phase column (50 x 4.6 mm, 2.5 mu m) in gradient elution using a mobile phase composed of water and 0.1% formic acid and a mixture of methanol and acetonitrile (50:50, v/v) containing 0.1% formic acid at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The linear range covered concentrations from 0.273 to 52.6 ng/mL for adefovir and from 0.539 to 104.2 ng/mL for pitavastatin in human plasma, respectively. The calibration curve for adefovir in urine ranged from 0.104 to 10.0 mu g/mL. The weighted linear regression (1/conc(2)) implied excellent linearity with correlation coefficients >= 0.999.